Friday, January 30, 2009

The Journey to Cochin

These posts are slightly out of order, but I think you will still enjoy seeing what we've been up to recently. After celebrating Christmas in Ooty, we ventured to Cochin. This was quite an experience! First of all, I have to say that we love Cochin! It was so relaxing, and there were enought tourists around that we were able to "blend in", which was a real treat for us. The trip there, however, was an adventure - not one that I would care to repeat. On the taxi ride down the ghat (mountain) Addie got carsick. Unfortunately, I was listening to some music on the iPod so I didn't notice until she had thrown up all over my lap and the backpack where we had put all of our snacks. We had to stop by the side of the road, and Ryan had to ask the driver to take down our luggage from the roof rack so I could change my clothes. Luckily there was a tiny village within walking distance, and I found a lady that finally understood that I needed a room where I could change (thhis was after two women had directed me to a stream where I could wash). The first leg of our trip was a 3 hour taxi ride to Coimbatore - where we would catch a 6 hour train to Cochin. We didn't know it, but our train was late since it was coming from the Nepal border. Since we thought we were going to miss our train, we were pretty stressed out when we reached the train station. None of us had ever seen such a mob of people! Luckily the mob cleared during the time when we were waiting for our train, so we were able to get to the right platform without getting trampled.Unfortunately for us, we ran to the wrong end of the train, and then had to run back to our car with all of the kids and luggage as the train was pulling out of the station! All of us were sweating, aching, and nearly crying when we finally got to our seats. I think that must have been the longest train I had ever seen.

2 comments:

I have a story or 2 regarding puke and traveling, too...except one of mine involves an adult lawer from washington DC bringing her baby home from Ethiopia! She'd never been a mom before and didn't have any extra clothes for the kiddo--or for herself--or for me. It was rather unfortunate. At least it was baby puke and not grown-up puke!